


Do as the Romans

by duustbunny



Category: Star Trek: Alternate Original Series (Movies)
Genre: First Kiss, First Time, Guilt, Kissing, M/M, Misunderstandings, Pining
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-09-27
Updated: 2013-09-27
Packaged: 2017-12-27 18:57:08
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,384
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/982436
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/duustbunny/pseuds/duustbunny
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>A straightforward mission finds Jim and Bones in a tight spot and staging a kiss may be the only way out.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Do as the Romans

**Author's Note:**

> For this prompt at the STID kink meme: http://strek-id-kink.livejournal.com/2836.html?thread=1610516#t1610516 
> 
> _"Another day, another mad chase by bad guys through a crowded city on an alien planet. Fortunately, Jim has a brilliant plan to throw their pursuers off the trail! He grabs whoever he's running with (Spock or Bones, I don't care which) and proceeds to shove his tongue down his throat._  
>  _Unsurprisingly, it turns into a little bit more than just a distraction._ " 
> 
> Ok, so it's not exactly Jim's idea, and the chasers are not exactly bad guys, and the setting may not exactly be a crowded city... but the essence of the prompt is there. I think. Just call it artistic license if you want.
> 
> \--

Missions never went as planned. Of course. Bones would surely argue that it was because Jim was involved. Jim, naturally, did not share that opinion. He tried hard to stick to the plan, but something unexpected always came up. “Space’s _always_ unexpected, Bones,” he would say, secretly thinking of it as flirting and feeling totally like a 15-year-old.

The mission on Cimera seemed relatively easy during the briefing. And perhaps Jim should have been suspicious at that, but after months of running for their lives on every planet they visited, he had welcomed the apparent break. The plan went like this: they would hide the Enterprise behind the biggest of Cimera’s moons, beam a small landing party down to the planet, go inside the High Temple and retrieve the mysterious round artifact that was on display inside but the Admiralty claimed was theirs and had been stolen.

There were a few drawbacks, obviously; not everything could be _that_ easy. The temple was a heavily shielded structure, which meant that they couldn’t beam anyone in or out of it in case of trouble, and those same shields rendered the communicators useless too. There was also the fact that the Admiralty would absolutely _not_ disclose the nature of the artifact or the reason why it had to be _stolen_ back, meaning that it was probably dangerous and definitely illegal.

But there was a very big point in their favor. The aliens were not just humanoid, but actually identical to humans in every way that could be seen with clothing on, and their behavior patterns were exceptionally human-like as well. That meant any human crew members on the planet would be virtually invisible.

Jim thought he had everything pretty much under control as he reached the transporter room to join the rest of the landing party. And Spock had calculated the odds of having to deviate from the plan to be 16.141% (“approximately, Captain”) which were pretty good odds, especially since Spock said he had included Jim’s predilection for trouble as a variable in the equation despite Jim’s assurances that he had no such predilection and thus the variable should always take the value of zero, thank you very much.

Bones, Sulu and Uhura were already on the transporter platform dressed in traditional Cimeran clothing as instructed, and Jim took his place next to them. He gave Bones an obvious once-over from head to toe and winked, commenting, “Wow, Bones, that tunic looks great on you, you should get at least three more. Maybe in darker colors.”

Bones rolled his eyes in exasperation, but looked somewhat uncomfortable, as he always did when Jim mock-flirted with him. Jim wondered whether the doctor would feel as uncomfortable if he knew Jim meant every word.

He let it drop and got all business. “Prepare to beam us down, Mr. Scott.”

“Aye, Captain.”

And as he felt his own atoms break apart, he couldn’t shake the feeling that Spock’s gaze on him looked distressingly uneasy, like he was starting to realize his equation had not included some variable that would surely make the odds of trouble go up to 100%.

Yep, it would be another one of _those_ missions.

\--

They did not raise any suspicions walking inside the temple: point to them.

The artifact turned out to be pretty discernible from other things and it happened to fit comfortably in the fold-like pockets of Cimeran tunics: point to them.

A silent alarm was obviously triggered when the artifact was removed from its display pedestal: point to the guards they could hear approaching down one of the hallways.

Jim sagged. “Alright, team, let’s split up. Uhura, Sulu, go through that archway. Bones, with me.”

He opened the door to his left; there was a long empty corridor behind it, full of doors. Well, one of them had to lead somewhere, right? Bones followed him and closed the door. The silence was only broken by their agitated breaths (which gave Jim all kinds of ideas, but there was no time to daydream). There were about fifty doors to check for an exit, and they set to do just that.

Halfway down the corridor it became obvious that something was wrong.

“So,” Jim said, as they closed yet another door, apologizing to the couple inside. “We’re in the red light zone of the temple.”

“This is obviously the _school_ zone, Jim. These are all classrooms,” Bones pointed out as he opened another door, this time to an empty room.

“In case you haven’t noticed, Bones, there are people having sex here.”

“Oh, believe me, I’ve noticed.”

Jim was sure he blushed at that. Inappropriately. Damn, he had to pull himself together.

After opening about two dozen doors, it was clear none of them led anywhere. Except for the five doors that led to people having sex, of course. But still no way out.

They were peering inside yet another empty room when they heard it: loud noises at the start of the corridor, behind the door they’d come through. They looked at each other in silent communication and, with a synchronization born out of years of studying and working together, they went inside the room and closed the door just as the guards came into the corridor.

The sounds of quick steps and shouted orders were punctuated by the opening and closing of doors.

“Shit, Bones.”

“My thoughts exactly.”

Okay. There had to be a way out. Jim refused to believe he had led them to a dead-end. No way. But the room was just a simple classroom and they were underground. No windows, no other doors, and almost definitely no hidden passageways or anything crazy like that. Of course, he still ran his hands along the walls, just in case, and Bones checked under the furniture stacked at the end of the room.

The guards were almost on them now. By the sound of it, Jim estimated they were about two or three doors from theirs. He turned around and almost bumped into a desperate-looking Bones.

“Kiss me,” his friend said.

Jim froze. Fuck, his brain picked the wrong moment to start hallucinating.

“Dammit, Jim, kiss me _now_!”

Then Bones’ lips were on him and Jim's brain simply shut down, letting his body take over. He threw his arms around his friend and kissed him like it was his one and only chance. Because it was.

Bones had chapped but very warm lips, and his tongue had a bland taste that Jim thought he could never tire of. Jim sucked on it hard and desperate. He caressed and grabbed and dug his nails in every inch of Bones’ body that he could reach, every inch that was normally off limits to touch.

He distantly heard the door open and close amid loud shouting. That was relevant somehow, he knew, but he just couldn’t care. There were more important things happening right now. His leg came up, stroking the side of Bones’ thigh, and it was a glorious feeling. Their bodies were touching everywhere. There was no sense of time, no sense of location, no past or future as he devoured his friend’s mouth and took all kinds of liberties with his body until he could no longer hear doors banging and voices yelling.

But then Bones was jumping back with a look of horror on his face and Jim was losing his balance in every sense of the word as he came crashing down to reality.

“Jesus, kid, what the hell was _that?!_ ”

Shit. Oh shit. “But-- you said-- you told me to kiss you!”

“Yeah, _kiss_ me. That was _not_ a kiss.”

“I thought we were aiming for realism here,” Jim bluffed.

It took Bones a moment to reply, and when he did, he sounded kind of contrite. “Yeah. Yeah, you’re right.”

There was another pregnant pause and Jim decided it was his cue to move on and pretend everything was normal. Running-for-their-lives normal. “We should get out of here.” _Yep, I didn’t just shove my tongue down your throat, not at all._

Bones was quiet all the way out of the temple. He was quiet when they found Sulu and Uhura waiting by the alley behind the building, and when they were beamed back aboard. He was quiet during the debriefing even though Spock kept baiting him for an argument. And he all but run away when the meeting was over, before Jim had time to even decide whether it was a good idea to approach him.

Jim had fucked up. He had fucked up bad.

\--

Leonard knew avoiding something didn’t make it disappear, but avoidance was still better than the alternative.

For the past week he had been coming up with all kinds of excuses to keep his professional interactions with Jim to the minimum, and the personal ones to naught. It was an almost impossible feat, and people were starting to notice (especially Jim, which was really not good) but Leonard couldn’t bring himself to do anything else.

Not a day, hell, not an _hour_ had gone by since the mission on Cimera that he hadn’t thought about the kiss. He thought about it while awake and he dreamed about it while asleep and he hated himself for it all the time. He could avoid Jim, but he could not avoid himself.

Truth was, he had messed up big time. He turned a necessary, professional pretense into something personal and real. And then, for the cherry on top, he had slipped and all but confessed just how _personal_ it had been for him.

Jim Kirk was smart. If he hadn’t figured it out right then in the temple, he would certainly have figured it out by now. Leonard didn’t want to face the kid and see the rejection in his eyes, or worse, the pity. Jim, despite all odds, was the best friend Leonard could ever hope to have. To any outsider they appeared to have nothing in common, but they knew better. It was like their own little secret, and it made Leonard all warm inside. Life in space could be dull and hopeless, but Jim was like a star, shinning light on Leonard’s world. It was in the kid’s nature. He was bright and vibrant and bubbly and flirty. _So_ flirty. It was a struggle to keep up pretenses when Jim got like that with him; every suggestive word, every wink, pushed Leonard one step closer to the edge. And he had finally fallen on Cimera. A hard fall that hurt like hell.

It had been unavoidable, he supposed.

\--

Jim finally cornered him in his own office, of all places. It was the end of gamma shift and sickbay was nearly empty, but Jim still closed the door behind him. That meant he was definitely here to talk about... _that_. Leonard instinctively moved to stand behind his desk, but Jim came around it so there was nothing between them save for three feet of recycled air.

“Bones, you have a minute?”

Damn. Trapped.

“I’m kind of busy, Jim.” A half-assed escape attempt, but could he be blamed? It was gamma shift, for God’s sake.

“It’s important. It’s about... you know....”

Oh, did he know. “I take it it’s not work-related.”

“No.”

Leonard was at a loss on how to keep stalling. Jim went right to the point. “You’ve been avoiding me since we came back from Cimera.”

“Some of us have actual work to do, you know. Disease and injuries cannot wait for--”

“Bullshit.”

Caught, Leonard sighed. “What do you want from me, Jim?”

Jim blinked for a moment longer than normal. He looked young and lost, and it broke Leonard’s heart.

“Look, Jim, I can keep it professional, okay? I know our personal relationship may be--” _damaged_ “--different now, but there’s no reason we can’t keep working together like before and do a hell of a fine job as always. I promise you, you don’t have to be concerned on that account.”

Jim was quiet for a while. Then he took a slow, deep breath and said, “So our personal relationship is different now?”

Leonard did a double take. Had he let on too much again? It never crossed Leonard’s mind that Jim might end their friendship altogether for what happened, but could it be he no longer wanted any kind of association with him?

“You’re right, of course,” Jim said, cutting Leonard’s train of thought short. “It was stupid of me to assume... never mind. I just wanted you to know, I’m very sorry about what happened.”

Leonard’s heart cracked a little bit more. He wanted to get out of there and hide. Preferably in a whiskey bottle.

“No one is sorrier that I, Jim,” he found himself saying. He didn’t want to talk about it, but there was something about the kid that always made him open up, whether he wanted to or not. “I thought I could keep it friendship only, I was so sure I could. But I was a fool to think that I could keep pretending for years and years. I just wish I hadn’t taken advantage of you like that. I really am sorry.”

He looked up to Jim’s face to show the sincerity of his words, but what he saw was not what he expected. Jim looked... disbelieving. His lips were parted and his eyebrows were twisted in a frown.

“Am I hallucinating again?” he asked.

“What?”

Leonard didn’t understand what Jim was getting at, but then his friend took a step closer, slowly and deliberately getting into Leonard’s space, and there was no mistaking that. Conversation ceased to matter.

They kissed slowly, hesitantly, a far cry from their desperate tongue-sucking at the Cimeran temple. Like they were afraid, like it could not possibly be real. Touching was kept at a minimum. Leonard let his instinct take over but his instinct was telling him ' _this can’t be happening for real but just in case be careful don’t scare him off don’t_ \--'

The sudden sound of voices outside his office signaled the gamma shift was drawing to an end. They jumped apart, startled. Jim’s eyes still mirrored the desire in Leonard’s own, though.

“Perhaps we could take this somewhere more private?”

Leonard smiled. “You read my mind, kid.”


End file.
